Blockade on Cuba: A Flagrant Violation to Human Rights

Geneva, Mar 5. – The blockade the United States has imposed on Cuba over the last 50 years is a massive, flagrant and systematic violation to human rights, Cuban Diplomat Juan Antonio Quintanilla denounced on Monday.

At the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Quintanilla noted that the study on the effect of unilateral measures presented here is a positive approach to this issue, but it is ambiguous and well below the existing expectations.

Taking into account the depreciation of the U.S. dollar against gold, up to December 2010, the direct economic damage caused by the U.S. blockade to the Cuban people exceeds 975 billion USD.

The diplomat denounced that this economic, trade and financial siege can be described as an act of genocide since it aims to make Cubans surrender through hunger and diseases.

The blockade also affects the rights of the U.S. citizens and has an extra-territorial nature given that it hurts enterprises, citizens and actions by third countries.

The Barack Obama administration has not changed the implementation of this policy and is well bellow the expectations created by the president's speech and national and international demands, Quintanilla underlined.(Prensa Latina)